Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Summer Simplicity: Raspberries & Cream

So some recipes are complex (e.g. "steep the lavender in the cream until fragrant" is still perhaps the most ridiculous, unjustified step I have ever taken in the pursuit of dessert), but some are beautifully simple.

That's an important life lesson. Ponder the thought for a while.
I saw a quote once by Alice Waters (I have no idea who that is, and I'm not going to search Wikipedia to find out before I post this, so maybe one of y'all out there can fill me in) hanging on the wall in one of my favorite restaurants in Utah. The simplicity and truth of the statement has stayed with me for a while. "When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is."

In some cases, you just want the food to taste "like what it is," because what it is is amazingly good and amazingly fresh. That's why I love the summertime, when my garden is in full bloom (or at the moment, a little sad looking from the heat, but there's still good stuff in there), and I can just grab a red pepper or a handful of basil off the plant and taste it in it's full glory. It's when dessert needs to be nothing more than ridiculously sweet, tart raspberries fresh from someone who grew them with love, a spoonful of sugar, and some cream that came from a cow who lives down the road.

There's no ornamentation needed. No crazy steps. No laborious slaving away. Just the acquisition and presentation of inherently good things that taste "like what they are." So dig in.

Raspberries and Cream

Fresh raspberries

White sugar

Heavy cream

Gently but thoroughly wash the raspberries and let them dry thoroughly. Check carefully for any bad berries (they go bad so quickly, it's a shame), leaves, twigs, etc. Place a few berries in a serving bowls or cups, and sprinkle generously with white sugar (use more or less as you like). Pour a little cream over them, again as much as you like. My first instinct was to stir them to coat evenly, but I'm pretty sure you'd break them apart completely.

2 comments:

"Alice Waters is an American chef, restaurateur, activist, author and humanitarian. She is the owner of Chez Panisse, a Berkeley, California restaurant famous for its organic, locally-grown ingredients and for pioneering California cuisine." --Wikipedia

I have been told by a good friend that "having a blog about cooking and not knowing who Alice Waters is is like having a blog about classical music and not knowing who Mozart is." Everyone, I apologize for my ignorance.